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Daniel Koechlin wrote: > > Post-industrial Western society in no way resembles 1914 Russia. > > Instead of building minuscule parties of the working-class, we should > all help build powerful industrial unions of the working class. > > Elections are a farce, class war is the true state of affairs. And the > corporate elites think they have won the class war. They can have > Chinese and Bangladeshi workers produce clothes, Western consumers buy > them and get "green" labels for their contribution to protecting the > environment. There are no opponents. They can siphon off 90% of the > surplus value and play the financial markets. There are no opponents. > > They will turn as green as spinach (like McDonalds) in order to remain > in business. They will rationalize production, they will shed (like a > snake) a third of the work-force, they will invest billions (Pepsi > invests 1$ billion) in advertising. > > According to OECD statistics, only 17% of workers are unionized. > According to an OECD poll, 64% of workers "would like to join a union > but are afraid of the negative consequences this would entail". > > Who is winning ? The capitalists ! True, but the class struggle is not over by a long shot. Okay, so there's no party out there to fully represent working class interests on the political front, nor a large (or even small) worker's union that will harness their latent power. Still, it doesn't mean (at least to me) that the class struggle is over or that the capitalist class has won it. "Between the working class and the capitalist class, there is an irrepressible conflict, a class struggle for life. No glib-tongued politician can vault over it, no capitalist professor or official statistician can argue it away; no capitalist parson can veil it; no labor faker can straddle it; no “reform” architect can bridge it over. It crops up in all manner of ways, like in this strike, in ways that disconcert all the plans and all the schemes of those who would deny or ignore it. It is a struggle that will not down, and must be ended, only by either the total subjugation of the working class, or the abolition of the capitalist class." http://www.slp.org/pdf/de_leon/ddlother/wm_strike.pdf We are not yet totally subjugated, comrade. BTW, please tell us what YOU think is the purpose and objective of a "powerful industrial union of the working class" and why you think such a thing is still possible in spite of the ever-worsening condition of the proletariat? What should be its founding principles? That workers fear the "negative consequences" of attempting to unionize is understandable, given the din and power of negative and deceitful propaganda against unionism that's out there. But what about the negative consequences of not attempting to unionize? Does anybody ever talk about that? Is anyone pointing out to us that when a workers' union fails to acknowledge or abandons the class struggle in principle and practice it removes the force that animates it? Besides the potential gains and benefits of organizing around proletarian principles, what's the downside to not organizing? Is anyone besides yourself discussing that? "Intervention and Union Work" http://www.slp.org/pdf/mbrmtrls/intervention.pdf -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/-Marxism--unions-again-tp28074530p28076747.html Sent from the Marxism mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
